In case any of you were wondering...

I think it's really funny and/or interesting when other people post their pet peeves so, without further ado, I shall post a couple of mine:

1. Anything handwritten, typed, placed on a marquis, or in other way publicly visible that is misspelled, incorrectly punctuated, or difficult to understand. My least favorites usually include using an apostrophe incorrectly, such as "Your so nice," "The dog licked it's paw," and "Peach's for sale; 3/$1." Please refrain from letting me know if you don't understand why these are examples of incorrectly using an apostrophe. Ha ha. (And by the way, yes, I am aware that I have just opened myself up to all sorts of corrections from any number of readers who will now be extra-vigilant about finding errors in my blog.) I don't really think I need to justify a pet peeve, but this time I will: This is an easy thing to avoid! Spell-check is a really easy way to make sure that anything typed is typed nearly correctly, and if you aren't confident that you can write something by hand without making an error, find yourself an editor. People who are good at this sort of thing usually actually enjoy editing; I recommend my brother. You can read his efforts at literary perfection at sjaustin.blogspot.com.

2. People who don't (really) listen. I probably should have made this my #1. I can't think of anything more disrespectful than pretending to listen when you aren't really listening. Unfortunately, listeners frequently do this unintentionally. People honestly think they are listening, but what they are really doing is disagreeing (or even agreeing) more and more vehemently with each word that comes out of your mouth... which, in turn, leads them to formulate their response to your comment before it's their turn to talk. The result is easy to detect if you are looking for it: the "listener" will reiterate the same point repeatedly without commenting on new elements you might have brought into the conversation. I have heard this called "stomp[ing] all over a conversation;" you can read more about that here.

Grrr...